On a Weekend in Romania

Saturday was our first full day in Romania. Mom had orientation in the morning so I helped cook lunch. After lunch we went out to Peris. This is the orphanage where my boys live. Iulian and George had gone home for Christmas break (as you will recall) but Ionut was there and Mom got to meet him.

Mom and Ionut

Because Iulian and George were not there some of the other kids who don't usually get the chance to hang out with me spent much of the day sitting on my lap and chatting with me. Alina grabbed me first thing and began talking with me and showing me everything.

Alina and I

But of course I did spend some time with my boy :)

Love him!

Sunday marked our second full day in Romania. We started by heading to the baby hospital after breakfast. I don't usually go to the baby hospital because I'm out at the other orphanages but we had the time and I was glad to go and see the littlest ones. It was very hot in the hospital (not a surprise there) but the nurses were nice and the kids seemed to be doing well. There were only 8 kids there and we had 5 volunteers (plus another lady from another organization was there) so there was almost one on one contact with the babies. They appeared to be doing well with all the attention :) No pictures allowed in the hospital so just imagine me holding a baby while sweating.

After the baby hospital we went to church and then the mall for lunch. Mom got to try her first taste of shawarma.

Best picture of shawarma I could find on the web. [source]

After lunch we went back to the team house and wrote emails, played games with the transition house boys who are staying in the area during Christmas break, and played with one of the "grandbabies" Ruthie. Before we got back, mom, Cherrie, Jen, and I may have made an impromptu trip into the city to look at Christmas lights and find a Starbucks. I can neither confirm nor deny this story :)

Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully I will have some time in the next few days to give a little processing and personal insight into how everything is going.